“We’re having a blast, Mr. President,” Casey said. “Thank you so much for allowing us this awesome opportunity.”
“So along with brains, the whole world knows you guys have incredible courage,” the president said. “The first male and female teenagers, and the first paraplegic, in space, and they’re Americans. Congratulations. The whole country is proud of you, and the whole world is impressed, I’m sure. Where are we on the test firing, Brad?”
“We’ve run into a potential problem that we’re hoping you can help fix, sir,” Brad said.
“Me? How?”
“We’ve collected the energy that we’d like to beam to Earth,” Brad explained, “but we’re afraid we won’t be able to get it out of the storage units and into the microwave cavity to shoot it Earthward.”
“That’s too bad, guys,” the president said. “I hope it’s an easy fix for you.”
“Everything else works, sir, and we’ve proven we can form a maser beam,” Brad said. “The only thing we haven’t proven is getting the beam to Earth and transformed into electricity.”
The president looked over to his traveling campaign director and lead Secret Service detail, silently signaling them to start preparations to form up and move his convoy, then checked his watch. “I’m really sorry about this, guys,” he said, “but I don’t know how I can help, and we do have a schedule to—”
“Mr. President, we think we have a workaround,” Kai Raydon said.
“What’s that, General?”
“Instead of using the energy stored in Starfire’s capacitors, we’d like your permission to use Skybolt’s magnetohydrodynamic generator,” Kai said. “The MHD is still plugged into Skybolt, but the free-electron laser is disconnected so the students’ microwave generator could use Skybolt’s subsystems. We can route the power from the MHD to Starfire in exactly the same quantity as the capacitors. The only thing that’s changed from the students’ original plan is the source of the energy. You’ve already given us permission to test the MHD generator, and it’s fully operational. We’d like permission to use it to power Starfire.”
The president’s face turned somber, and he looked around at all of the faces in the lab and on the monitor. “General, you are absolutely sure that the big laser is disconnected and will not fire?” he asked, his voice low in great concern.
“Yes, sir, I’m positive.”
“Not one watt of laser light?”
“None, sir,” Kai assured him. “It would take a long time to plug Skybolt back in. No, sir, Skybolt won’t fire. I’m absolutely positive of that.”
He looked around again, then pulled out his secure cell phone. “I need to consult a few folks,” he said. “I’m afraid some might believe that your maser is really the Skybolt laser. I’d like to get a legal opinion before—”
“Excuse me, sir,” Jodie said, “but we need a decision pretty quickly—the station rises above the target’s horizon in about ten minutes.” She looked at the large teleconference monitor. “Sergeant Lukas, can you tell me how long it will take to connect the MHD to Starfire?”
Valerie turned to a computer console and typed in commands. “The hardwire connection is already there,” she said. “Testing the circuitry should take just a few minutes unless we find problems. No guarantees, but I think we can do it in time.”
Jodie turned to the president. “Sir?”
Phoenix looked even more grim-faced than before, but after a few tense moments he nodded and said, “Do it. Good luck.”
“Thank you, sir,” Jodie said. Her hands flew over her laptop’s keyboard, and Lane was actually punching instructions into two laptops at once. “Sergeant Lukas, you have the cavity power-control program on checklist page two-twelve bravo.”
“Got it,” Valerie said. “Engineering, this is Operations, spin up the MHD, switch to page two-twelve bravo, power on system seventeen red and the MHD power-control subsystem and cross-check.”
“Standing by,” came the response from Alice Hamilton in the Engineering module, waiting for validation from the station commander.
“Engineering, this is Command,” Kai said on intercom. “Authorized to spin up the MHD and plug it into Starfire. Advise when ready.” He hit the all-stations intercom switch. “Attention on the station, this is the director. We will be activating the MHD generator and using it to send Project Starfire’s maser energy to Earth via Skybolt’s subsystems. As at any time we activate the MHD, I want all modules sealed up, on-duty crewmembers on oxygen, and off-duty crews to damage-control stations and into space suits. Report by department when ready.”
“Roger, Command,” Alice acknowledged. “Operations, MHD is spinning up. Stand by.”